Empire of the Bay: Sir Martin Frobisher One of many explorers looking for a Northwest Passage to the Orient, Sir Martin Frobisher was one of the first English explorers to sail the northeast North American coast. Frobisher's travels began in the 1550s, when he explored Africa's northwest coast. A navigator by trade and an adventurer by nature, Frobisher gained a reputation for preying on French trading vessels in the waters off Guinea. He was arrested several times during the 1560s on piracy charges, but managed to avoid trial. In 1576, Frobisher became commander of three small ships and set sail for North America in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. During his first trip, he reached Labrador and Baffin Island and sailed through the bay that now bears his name. Frobisher sensed North America was a land rich in gold, and his tales of treasure earned him royal backing for his next two voyages in 1577 and 1578. On those voyages, Frobisher attempted to start at least one ill-fated settlement, but spent most of his time looking for precious metals.

When he returned empty-handed after a third try, Frobisher lost his financial backing. Frobisher returned to the seas in 1585 as vice admiral for Sir Francis Drake's voyage to the West Indies. Three years later, he fought for the English against the Spanish Armada and was knighted for his efforts. For the next six years, Frobisher headed up several different English squadrons, including one that attempted to intercept Spanish treasure ships in the Azores. During a similar scuffle with Spanish forces in 1594, Frobisher was mortally wounded in battle and died at sea. A Chart of Frobisher Bay and part of the West Coast of Davis Strait showing the Track and Discoveries of C. F. Hall on his Franklin Research Expeditions during the years of 1860 - 61 - 62.: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps SOLD. Call for off-line availability Title A Chart of Frobisher Bay and part of the West Coast of Davis Strait showing the Track and Discoveries of C. F. Hall on his Franklin Research Expeditions during the years of 1860 - 61 - 62.

1864 (dated 1860 - 61 - 62) 16.5 x 22.5 in (41.91 x 57.15 cm) Description This is a rare and fascinating 1864 map of Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island and the Davis Straits, Canada prepared to illustrate the explorations and discoveries of Charles Francis Hall. Hall is a fascinating figure in Arctic Exploration. In 1860 Hall, at the time a Newspaper publisher, became obsessed with the idea of rescuing the missing Arctic expedition of English nobleman Sir John Franklin. Despite a lack of substantial funding or experience in the Arctic, Hall set out for Greenland with the plan to use local guides and techniques to aid in his explorations. The full story of Hall's fascinating adventures cannot be contained here, nonetheless, after several years in the Arctic, he did in fact discover the sad fate of Franklin's expedition – starvation and death. This however was not his most notable achievement. Rather, it is his correctly identifying Frobisher Strait as a Bay on Baffin Island.

The English navigator Martin Frobisher first explored this area in 1576 in the search of a Northwest Passage. He described the discovery of a large body of open water to the west of Baffin Island. Desirous of a Northwest Passage, Frobisher assumed that the Bay was in fact a strait separating Baffin Island from another unknown island. It was not until Hall explored the area in 1860 that it became clear that Baffin Island was much larger than presumed and that the supposed 'strait' was little more than a large bay. This is consequently one of the first published maps to show this Arctic region with relative accuracy. Published to supplement C. F. Hall's account of the 'Franklin Research Expedition' in 1865. Cartographer Charles Francis Hall (1821 - November 8, 1871) was an important American born Arctic explorer who made his most important explorations in the vicinity of Baffin Island and King William Island between 1860 and 1871. Hall was born in Rochester, New Hampshire where he apprenticed to a local blacksmith.

Apparently a life at the anvil was not his thing because he seems to have abandoned that calling. Several years later he appeared in Cincinnati, Ohio where he founded and published a local newspaper, The Cincinnati Occasional. Around 1857, Hall became fascinated with Arctic exploration and obsessed with the idea that members of English nobleman Sir John Franklin's missing expedition were still be alive and living with indigenous Inuit communities. It was not until 1860 that Hall was able to finally make it to the Arctic onboard the whaler George Henry. He was dropped off on Baffin Island where he befriended a local Inuit couple, Ebierbing (called "Joe") and his wife Tookoolito (called "Hannah"). This couple, who would remain with him for the remainder of his Arctic explorations, told Hall of the ruins of Martin Frobisher's 16th century mining venture at nearby Frobisher Bay. At the time Frobisher Bay was assumed by westerner cartographers to be a Strait between Baffin Island and another unknown landmass. Hall explored the old mining camp as well as the "Frobisher's Strait" and for the first time on record correctly identified it as a "Bay".

While studying the area, Hall also found evidence that he claimed pointed to the survival of several members of Sir John Franklin's expedition on King William Island, to the west. Armed with his evidence and the Inuit couple "Joe" and "Hannah", Hall returned to the United States to raise money for a second expedition. Coming home to a nation embroiled in a terrible Civil War, Hall had a hard time raising funds. Nonetheless, just two years later in 1864, Hall embarked on a second expedition to King William Island in search of Franklin and his crew. Several years later Hall did in fact discover what he considered to be the remains of the expedition - bones, charcoal, and some basic tools. He was horrified that the expedition of 40 or so had been left to starve by local Inuit peoples, though never seemed to realize that the local population could barely feed itself through the harsh Arctic winters. Returning to the U.S., Hall determined to make a future for himself in the hearty field of Arctic Exploration. He petitioned Washington for funds and was successfully granted 50,000 USD to lead a ship, a distinguished crew, and three scientists to the Arctic.

The Polaris Expedition, as it was known, had an auspicious start though Hall almost instantly fell out with the expedition's scientists, with whom he fought over leadership issues. The expedition reached Greenland in September of 1871 where it settled in to wait out the coldest winter months. Two months later, in early November, Hall drank a cup of coffee and suddenly fell ill. He died days later while accusing the ship's physician and leader of the three scientists, Dr. Bessels, of poising him. He was buried in Greenland on November 8 of 1871. The official investigation determined that Hall died of apoplexy. About one hundred years later in 1968, Hall's biographer Dartmouth professor Chauncey C. Loomis, made a trip to Greenland to exhume the body. The Arctic cold left Hall in an extraordinary state of preservation and tests were able to conclusively prove that Hall did in fact die of Arsenic poisoning. Source Hall, C. F., Arctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux.

(New York, 1865) Condition The Mariners' Museum | EXPLORATION through the AGES Martin Frobisher Baffin Island Commemorative plate of Martin Frobisher, made by Royal Doulton. Many famous explorers are celebrated in commemorative wares like dishes and spoon years after their accomplishments. The Marinersï¿½ Museum. On July 20th, Hall wrote that "we had sight of lande, which I supposed to be Labrador." Best added that Frobisher named this land "Queene Elizabeths Forland, after her majesties name." Continuing onward, Best said, "And sailing more Northerly alongst that coast, he descried another forland with a great gut, bay or passage, divided as it were two maine lands or continents asunder." On August 1st, Hall had his ship's boat lowered next to an isle of ice and tried to sound along its shore. No sooner had Hall and his men gotten back aboard the Gabriel, "that great Island of yce fell one part from another, making a noyce as if a great cliffe had fallen into the Sea." On the tenth, Hall again lowered his boat to explore another island.

This time he made it ashore long enough to determine the extent of the incoming tide, but "could not tarry long to proove it, because the shippe was a great way from me, and I feared a fogge." On August 14th, the Gabriel entered the strait that they had espied in July at a latitude of 63'8'', and Frobisher named it "Frobisher's streights, like as Magellanus at ye Southwest end of the world." On the morning of August 19th, after having sailed sixty leagues into this strait, Frobisher and Hall went ashore on an island in the ship's boat along with eight other men, "to see if there were there any people, or no," wrote Hall. After a terrifying encounter with "mighty deere" that seemed almost human, Frobisher climbed to the top of this island, where he spied "a number of small things fleeting in the sea afarre off, which he supposed to be porposes or seales, or some kind of strange fish; but coming neerer, he discovered them to be men in small boats made of leather." Frobisher had just encountered his first Eskimos.

Best reported that they attempted to surround Frobisher and thus cut off his route back to the Gabriel, but Frobisher "speedily hasted to his boat, and bent himselfe to his halberd, and narrowly escaped the danger, and saved his boat." Hall wrote, "At length we sent our boate with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boats withe their men along the shoare, rowing after our boate, till such time as they sawe our shippe, and then they rowed a shoare; then I went on shoare myself, and gave every one of them a thredden point, and brought one of them aboord of me, where he did eate and drinke, and then carried him on shoare againe. Whereuppon all the rest came aboord with their boates, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understood them not." Hall described the Eskimos in a rare bit of literary looseness in his otherwise terse log.

He said, "They be like to Tartars, with long blacke haire, broad faces, and flatte noses, and tawnie in colour, wearing Seale skinnes, and so doe the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blewe streekes downe the cheekes, and round the eies." When the Eskimos came aboard, they brought with them salmon and other types of fish and flesh, all raw, which they ate in front of the astonished English sailors. Then they proceeded to climb the rigging of the ship and "tried many masteries upon the ropes of the ship after our mariners fashion, and appeared to be very strong of their armes and nimble of their bodies," wrote Best. They exchanged coats of seal and bear skins for "belles, looking glasses, and other toyes, in recompense thereof againe." On August 20th, Frobisher, Hall and four other men rowed ashore and enticed an Eskimo man into their boat, whereupon they took him aboard the Gabriel, and gave him a bell and a knife.

Hall wrote, "so the Captaine and I willed five of our men to set him a shoare at a rocke, and not among the companie, which they came from, but their wilfulnes was such, that they would goe to them, and so were taken themselves, and our boate lost." Best added, "the captaine being destitute of boat, barke, and all company, had scarsely sufficient number to conduct backe his barke againe. He could now neither convey himselfe ashore to rescue his men (if he had bene able) for want of a boat; and againe the subtile traitours were so wary, as they would after that never come within our men's danger." Nonetheless, Frobisher wanted to take back with him a souvenir of his visit, and plotted the capture of an Eskimo. Knowing how the Eskimos loved the English bells, on August 22nd, Frobisher rang a bell on the deck of the Gabriel and through signs communicated to those on shore that he would give the bell to whoever would come and get it.

To tease the Eskimos further, he then threw a bell at them, but purposefully let it fall short into the sea. Then he rang a louder bell. Finally, one man ventured forth in his kayak to the side of the ship where Frobisher was holding the bell. Just as the man reached to take the bell from the captain's hand, Frobisher dropped the bell and pulled the man, kayak and all, into the Gabriel. The Eskimo, finding himself "in captivity, for very choler and disdaine he bit his tongue in twaine within his mouth: notwithstanding, he died not thereof, but lived untill he came in England, and then he died of cold which he had taken at sea." The ship repaired to Thomas Williams Island (named on the way up the strait) where they anchored for the night. The next day they began shaping a homeward course.

Very little happened on the homeward leg of the Gabriel's voyage until September 7th, when a terrible storm hit the little ship and a sailor "was blowen into the sea out of our waste, but he caught hold of the foresaile sheate, and there held, till the Captaine pluckt him againe into the ship." The tired little Gabriel finally came to anchor at Harwich in England on October 2nd, 1576. As a sort of postscript to Best's narrative of the first voyage, he recalls that Frobisher "commanded his company, if by any possible meanes they could get ashore, to bring him whatsoever thing they could first finde, whether it were living or dead, stocke or stone, in token of Christian possession . . .

Some of his company brought floures, some greene grasse; and one brought a piece of blacke stone much like to a sea cole in colour, which by the weight seemed to be a kinde of metall or minerall." Frobisher kept the rock as a curiosity piece, but the demands of friends for souvenirs forced him to cut it up and give chunks away to those who wanted their very own piece of the New World . A lady friend carelessly dropped her piece into her fireplace where it burned for some time until she could pull it out again. Washing the stone in vinegar, she noticed that it "glistered with a bright marquesset of golde." Goldfiners in London inspected the stone and declared that it did indeed contain gold, in large amounts. Best ends his narrative, "In conclusion, the hope of more of the same golde ore to be found kindled a greater opinion in the hearts of many to advance the voyage againe.

Whereupon preparation was made for a new voyage against the yere following, and the captaine more specially directed by commission for the searching more of this golde ore then for the searching any further discovery of the passage." So with a kiss to the Queen's dainty hand, Frobisher was off to prepare for his second voyage. The strait that Frobisher believed he had discovered on that first voyage turned out to be merely a large bay on the southeast coast of Baffin Island, though it still bears his name. The "gold" discovered by the careless toss of a lady's hand proved to be nothing more than iron pyrite, or fool's gold, prompting Best to write in his narrative of Frobisher's second voyage, "All is not gold that glistereth." Frobisher lost his pinnace with four men aboard, his ship's boat along with five men, and had masts and spars crashing down upon the deck of the tiny Gabriel during fierce arctic storms. His other ship, the Michael, abandoned him, and her crew reported him lost. Nothing about the voyage was truly successful.

Yet the very fact that Frobisher had gone and then returned with the promise of a northwest passage and a gold mine was enough to spur the English on to more voyages of discovery to the northwest. Frobisher himself completed two more voyages to Meta Incognita (as Elizabeth dubbed the land Frobisher discovered) in 1577 and again in 1578. He was followed by Sir Humfry Gilbert in 1578 and again in 1579, and later by John Davis in 1585, 1586, and 1587. Frobisher's first venture to the northwest fanned the flames of English expansionist interests in the New World that had long lay dormant throughout the reigns of the early Tudors. That he did not accomplish any of his original goals is indeed a moot point, for he pointed Englishmen to those waters and there they would continue to return. The voyages of Frobisher, Gilbert, and Davis among others, while unsuccessful in their primary purpose, provided important information and experience for England's later ventures into colonizing North America, in both navigational science and relations with the native peoples of North America.

Martin Frobisher's three voyages to the northwest provided an excellent example, and few voyages to the northwest are as well documented as his first voyage in 1576. Culture Contact and the Frobisher Voyages - The Ultimate History Project Culture Contact and the Frobisher Voyages Robert M. Ehrenreich A Man, called Sir Martin Frobisher, Painting, 17 cent. Martin Frobisher set sail from England in 1576 on a voyage of exploration. Over the course of this and two subsequent voyages, his mission transformed from searching for the Northwest Passage to mining for gold on Baffin Island. But Frobisher’s mining expeditions were complete and utter financial failures. Michael Lok, Frobisher’s financier was imprisoned for fraud while Frobisher himself disappeared from the annals of history for over a year as he tried to redeem his reputation. The almost 1,300 tons of worthless rock shipped back from Baffin Island found an equally ignominious end as building materials for walls and roads in Dartford, England, and Smerwick, Ireland, where one of the ships, Emanuel of Bridgwater, shambled into port after a punishing return voyage.

Often overlooked in the history books is the fact that Frobisher’s expeditions marked the first contact between Inuit and European on Baffin Island, with dramatic effects on both. The logs and memoirs of the European explorers reveal a combination of fascination and fear of the indigenous inhabitants, while Inuit culture perpetuated folklore about the contact and memorialized it in place names that are still in use today. European Reaction The premier primary source on the Frobisher voyages is Captain George Best’s 1578 book, A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie. Best served as Frobisher’s lieutenant on the second voyage and as the captain of the Anne Francis on the third. He wrote about all three expeditions, based on his detailed logs and close working relationship with Frobisher. The volumes show that Frobisher was open to encounters with the Inuit on the first voyage, probably thinking that the local inhabitants would be a good source of information in the quest to find the Northwest Passage.

For example, Best (1578, 1:49) states that Frobisher: …had sundry conferences with them and they came aboard his ship and brought him salmon and raw flesh and fish…They exchanged coats of seal and bearskins and such like with our men and received bells, looking glasses, and other toys in recompense thereof… Inuit Village near Frobisher Bay (from C. Hall's Arctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux, 1865) The situation changed dramatically, however, when “[a]fter great courtesy and many meetings, our mariners, contrary to their Captain’s direction, began more easily to trust them, and five of our men going ashore, were by them intercepted with their boat and were never since heard of to this day again” (Best 1578/1:49). What made matters worse was that Frobisher couldn’t even send a party after his lost men. His pinnace had sunk during the initial voyage from England, and the missing men had taken the only other shore-going boat available.

For the rest of the first expedition, Frobisher’s main goal in interacting with the local population was to obtain “hostages” for an exchange. Best described how Frobisher captured one Inuk toward the conclusion of the first expedition: To make them more greedy of the matter, he rang a louder bell, so that in the end one of them came near the ship side to receive the bell, which when he thought to take at the Captain’s hand, he was thereby taken himself. For the Captain being readily provided, let the bell fall and caught the man fast and plucked him with main force, boat [kayak] and all, into his bark, out of the sea; whereupon when he found himself in captivity, for very choler and disdain he bit his tongue in twain within his mouth. Notwithstanding, he died not thereof, but lived until he came in England, and then he died of cold which he had taken at sea. (Best 1578/1:50) The two remaining expeditions were very different in tone and armament - undoubtedly a result of the shift in the objective of the expeditions from exploration to gold mining.

Armaments and soldiers would have been considered necessary to protect the mining operations from the local population and ensure the safe return of the gold ore to England. In the second voyage, Frobisher established his base of operations on Kodlunarn Island. Five turf and stone structures were built, four of which were related to mining: a smithy, an assayer’s office, and two storehouses for blacksmithing and assaying tools and charcoal. The final structure was a modest fort of rock and sod walls. Constructed under Best’s supervision on a promontory on the southeast end of the island and known as Best’s Bulwark, it was too small to house a mining camp or garrison. Thus, it probably was intended to serve as a refuge in the event of an attack. Two major and bloody skirmishes did, in fact, occur during the second expedition. Frobisher and his men killed five Inuit men in one battle, and abducted a man, woman, and child in another. Frobisher almost seized two more Inuit, but they luckily escaped, dealing Frobisher a humiliating blow in the process: …[Frobisher] presently upon a watchword given, with his Master suddenly laid hold upon the two savages.

But the ground underfoot being slippery, with the snow on the side of the hill, their handfast failed and their prey, escaping, ran away and lightly recovered their bow and arrows, which they had hidden not far from them behind the rocks. And being only two savages in sight, they so fiercely, desperately and with such fury assaulted and pursued our General and his Master, being altogether unarmed and not mistrusting their subtlety, that they chased them to their boats and hurt the General in the buttock with an arrow. (Best 1578/1:59) Returning to the research vessel, copyright Robert M. Ehrenreich It was also during this voyage that Best started to refer to the Inuit as devious, murderous, and probably cannibalistic, in the face of the Inuit’s own testimony. Best relates the results of an interrogation of an Inuk as follows: …[H]e gave us plainly to understand by signs that he had knowledge of the taking of our five men the last year…And when we made him signs that they were slain and eaten, he earnestly denied and made signs to the contrary.

(Best 1578/1:65-66) Best was not convinced, however. On finding a tunic of one of the lost men containing what appeared to be arrow holes, Best states again, “considering their ravenous and bloody disposition in eating any kind of raw flesh or carrion, howsoever stinking, it is to be thought that they slain [sic] and devoured our men” (Best 1578/1:68-69). Still intent on locating their lost men, the Europeans continued to give gifts to the Inuit in attempts to coax them to return the men. Since the Inuit would no longer deal with the Europeans face-to-face, Frobisher’s men had to leave the gifts in the indigenous populations’ camps after the inhabitants had fled.

As Best (1578/1:66-67) states, Captain Yorke…discovered certain tents of the country people…he entered into them but found the people departed, as it should seem for fear of their coming…Whereupon, our men being in good hope that some of them [the missing mariners] might be here and yet living, the Captain…left his mind behind him in writing, with pen, ink, and paper also, whereby our poor captive countrymen, if it might come to their hands, might know their friends’ minds and of their arrival and likewise return their answer. And so without taking anything away in their tents, leaving there also looking glasses, points, and other of our toys (the better to allure them by such friendly means), departed aboard his bark… Engraving of Explorer Charles Hall, Harper's Magazine, 1862. The final voyage saw the culmination of the expeditions’ militaristic attitude. Prior to departure, Frobisher established a set of strict guidelines for all ships (Best 1578/1:103-104) that foreshadowed the British Navy’s Articles of War by roughly 75 years.

Luckily, no captives were taken during the third voyage, although attempts were made. As Best states, “the people are now…so wary and so circumspect, by reason of their former losses, that by no means we can apprehend any of them, although we attempted often in this last voyage” (Best 1578/1:129). Interestingly, Best didn’t restrict his discussion of the local Inuit to mere descriptions of their interactions with the Europeans. He devoted a special section of his book, entitled A General and Brief Description of the Country and Condition of the People Which are Found in Meta Incognita, to a detailed analysis of the local population as people. He had obviously spent a lot of time with the captives, and some of his comments are surprisingly perceptive: These people are in nature very subtle and sharp witted, ready to conceive our meaning by signs and to make answer, well to be understood again…they will teach us the names of each thing in their language which we desire to learn and are apt to learn anything of us.

They delight in music above measure….They are exceedingly friendly and kind-hearted, one to the other, and mourn greatly at the loss or harm of their fellows and express their grief of mind, when they part one from another, with a mournful song and dirges. They are very shamefaced in betraying the secrets of nature and very chaste in their manner of their living: for when the man which we brought from thence into England should put off his coat or uncover his whole body for change, he would not suffer the woman to be present but put her forth of his cabin” (Best 1578/1:124-125). Elizabethan British explorers were obviously no different than many people today in their capacity to hold two diametrically opposed views of one people at the same time. On one hand, Best perceived the Inuit as a bloodthirsty and cannibalistic people; while on the other hand, he felt the individuals to be kind and gentle. The author on Kodlunum Island, copyright Robert M. Ehrenreich. Inuit Reaction We unfortunately do not have the same level of detail for the Inuit perspective of the interaction as we do for the European perspective.

In the nineteenth century, Charles Hall collected the bulk of the Inuit folklore about the Frobisher voyages and published them in his book, Arctic Researches, And, Life Among the Esquimaux: Being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, in the Years 1860, 1861, and 1862. Hall had sailed to Baffin Island on a whaling vessel in 1860 in search of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition that had disappeared in 1848. Hall firmly believed that members of Franklin’s crew could still be alive and living with the Inuit. Unfortunately for Hall, he had to abandon his first quest for the Franklin expedition when a storm destroyed the small exploration vessel that he was to use for his search. Unable to return home until the spring thaw, Hall spent the winter on Baffin Island, expanding his knowledge of Inuit culture and folklore. It was while interviewing local elders about possible previous expeditions to the region that he came across stories about the appearance of qallunats--which is the Inukatut word for Europeans--long ago over three successive summers in more and more ships.

There was also lore about the death of five Inuits in a skirmish with the foreigners and the capture of four Inuits by the explorers. Although doubtful at first, Hall concluded from the level of detail in the stories, that he was actually hearing accounts of the Frobisher expeditions. Shocked that such tales were still being told 300 years later, he asked an Inuk woman how they had survived. She eloquently described the method by which the tales were passed down the generations: When our baby boy gets old enough, we tell him all about you and about all those qallunats who built a ship on Kodlunarn Island; when boy gets to be an old Inuit he tell it to other Inuits, and so all Inuits will know what we now know (Hall 1865:445) Remains of Frobisher era structure on Kodlunum, copyright R. M. Ehrenreich Inuit folklore says that the five mariners wintered on Kodlunarn Island--the name having derived from the Inuktitut word for Europeans, qallunat..

The following spring, three of the men built a ship in one of the mining trenches on Kodlunarn while the other two watched, per one Inuk, “all same as captains” (Hall 1865:473). The Inuit didn’t help build the ship, but they did help put it to sea. The masts were erected at a cliff near Kodlunarn Island, which is still called by the Inuktitut term for a place “to set up a mast” (Nepouetiesupbing). Before the Elizabethan explorers departed, the Inuit sang a song wishing the qallunats quick passage and much joy. Unfortunately, the five men had left too early in the season and were forced back by storms and frozen hands. Lore states that the Inuit built igloos and brought them food, but the sailors all perished. The persistence within Inuit society of the tale of the lost Frobisher crew members testifies to the incredible impact the appearance of the Europeans had had on the Inuit 300 years earlier. The significance of these events on the indigenous population can also be recognized in the history of a “heavy stone” left behind by the explorers.

The Inuit spoke of a very large, smooth object that was used as a test of strength by younger Inuit men as well as a seat by visiting or important Inuit. Based on drawings of the object made by three of the Inuit, Hall concluded that the object was an anvil. It turns out that the Inuit threw the anvil into the sea in the early part of the nineteenth century, believing that it was responsible for a devastatingly poor hunting season. The anvil must have been incredibly significant to have remained within Inuit culture for roughly 250 years and finally cast out because of a belief that its presence was adversely affecting hunting. Although the Inuit did not have the knowledge or resources to smelt iron, they did coldwork iron as early as 800 BC and possessed a well-established route for trading metal. The main source of iron in the Arctic at this time was the huge meteorite fall of at least 58 tons in the Cape York region of northwest Greenland. Although meteoritic iron is incredibly hard and difficult to work, the Inuit used hammerstones to fashion small blades on the surface of the meteorites and then break the flakes off by further laboriously pounding on the extraterrestrial metal.

The iron of the anvil would have been softer than the meteorites and thus would actually have been easier to fashion into tools. The fact that the Inuit did not exploit the metal in the anvil testifies to the significance of their interaction with the Europeans. The anvil had become of greater value as a historical object than as a source of metal. Although Frobisher’s voyages were a financial disaster, the expeditions had a deep and long-lasting influence on both populations, but especially the indigenous one. Although contact was limited to sporadic gift-giving, hostage taking, and battles, both societies were affected. For the Inuit, the persistence of place names and folklore for over 300 years and the presence of the anvil for over 250 years testifies to the deep impact that first contact had on their society. Northwest Passage: The Search for a Passage Northwest Passage The Search for a Passage Sir Martin Frobisher, the English explorer, was the first European to explore (1576–78) the eastern approaches of the passage.

John Davis also explored (1585–87) this area, and in 1610 Henry Hudson sailed north and visited Hudson Bay while seeking a short route to Asia. Soon afterward, William Baffin, an English explorer, visited (1616) Baffin Bay, through which the passage was finally found. English statesmen and merchants, anxious to have the passage found, encouraged exploration. Luke Fox and Thomas James made (1631–32) voyages into Hudson Bay. Although one of the avowed goals of Hudson's Bay Company was to find the Northwest Passage, little was accomplished until a century after its charter, when Samuel Hearne, a British explorer with the company, went overland as far west as the Coppermine River (1771–72) and demonstrated that there was no short passage to the western sea. The British government offered prizes for achievements in northern exploration, and Captain James Cook was inspired to make the first attempt at navigating the passage from the west. He died before he could accomplish anything.

The British, Spanish, and Americans, however, pushed explorations on the Pacific coast, and the explorations of the Russians about Kamchatka and Alaska, together with the voyages of Alexander Mackenzie, the Canadian explorer, and the expedition of the Americans Lewis and Clark, revealed the contours of the continental barrier. Wars between Britain and France interrupted the search for the Northwest Passage, and when resumed after the wars the explorations were made in the interests of science, not commerce. The desire to extend human knowledge was the chief motive in arctic exploration after the expeditions of British explorers John Ross and David Buchan were sent out in 1818. Ross's later voyages, and those of Sir William Edward Parry, F. W. Beechey, Sir George Back, Thomas Simpson, and Sir John Franklin pushed forward the knowledge of the Arctic and of the Northwest Passage. The last tragic expedition of Franklin indirectly had more effect than any other voyage because of the many expeditions sent out to discover his fate. In his expedition (1850–54), Robert J. Le M.

McClure penetrated the passage from the west along the northern coast of the continent and by a land expedition reached Viscount Melville Sound, which had been reached (1819–20) by Parry from the east. The actual existence of the Northwest Passage had been proved, and the long search was over. It was many years, however, before a transit of the passage was made. This feat, which had been attempted by so many men, was first accomplished (1903–6) by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen . Interest in the Northwest Passage slackened until the 1960s, when oil was discovered in N Alaska and there was a desire for a short water route to transport oil to the east coast of the United States. Sections in this article: Sir Martin Frobisher | English explorer | Britannica.com Sir Martin Frobisher Sir Martin Frobisher, (born c. 1535, Yorkshire , England —died November 22, 1594, Plymouth , Devon), English navigator and early explorer of Canada’s northeast coast. Sir Martin Frobisher.

© Stapleton Historical Collection/Heritage-Images Frobisher went on voyages to the Guinea coast of Africa in 1553 and 1554, and during the 1560s he preyed on French shipping in the English Channel under a privateering license from the English crown; he was arrested several times on charges of piracy but never brought to trial. Having become interested in the possibility of finding a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean , Frobisher in 1576 obtained the command of three small ships, in one of which he succeeded in crossing the Atlantic that year. He reached Labrador and Baffin Island and discovered the bay that now bears his name. He returned to England with reports of possible gold mines, thereby obtaining royal backing for two further expeditions to the same area, in 1577 and 1578. On the latter of these expeditions, Frobisher sailed up Hudson Strait but then turned back to anchor at Frobisher Bay , where his attempts to establish a colony were unsuccessful.

Frobisher’s single-minded pursuit of mineral treasure limited the exploratory value of his voyages, and, when the ores he brought back from his third voyage proved to contain neither silver nor gold, his financing collapsed, and he was forced to seek other employment. In 1585 Frobisher sailed as vice admiral of Sir Francis Drake’s expedition to the West Indies , and three years later he played a prominent part in the campaign against the Spanish Armada , being knighted during the operations. Over the next six years Frobisher commanded various English naval squadrons, including one in the Azores (1591) that unsuccessfully sought to capture Spanish treasure ships. In 1594 he was mortally wounded fighting a Spanish force on the west coast of France. Frobisher was undoubtedly one of the ablest seamen of his time, but as an explorer he lacked the capacity for patient factual investigation. Learn More in these related articles: Sir Martin Frobisher | Sir Martin Frobisher (c. 1535 or 1539… | Flickr Lisby By: Lisby Sir Martin Frobisher Sir Martin Frobisher (c.

1535 or 1539 – 15 November 1594) was an English seaman (born Altofts, Yorkshire) who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage. All landed in northeastern Canada, around today's Resolution Island and Frobisher Bay. On his second voyage, Frobisher found what he thought was gold ore and carried 200 tons of it home on three ships, where initial assaying determined it to be worth a profit of £5.1 per ton. Encouraged, Frobisher returned to Canada with an even larger fleet and dug several mines around Frobisher Bay. He carted 1,350 tons of the ore back where, after years of smelting, it was realized that both that batch of ore and the earlier one he had taken were worthless. As an English privateer/pirate, he collected riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada in 1588.

As early as 1560 or 1561, Frobisher had formed a resolution to undertake a voyage in search of a Northwest Passage as a trade route to India and China (referred to at that time as Cathay). It took him fifteen years to gain necessary funding for his project. In 1576, Frobisher managed to convince the Muscovy Company, an English merchant consortium which had previously sent out several parties searching for the Northeast Passage, to license his expedition. With the help of Micheal Lok, the Muscovy Company's director, Frobisher was able to raise enough capital for three barks: the Gabriel and Michael, of about 20-25 tons each and a pinnace of ten tons, with a total crew of 35. [1] He weighed anchor at Blackwall, and, after having received a good word from Queen Elizabeth I of England at Greenwich, set sail on 7 June 1576, by way of the Shetland Islands. In a storm, the pinnace was lost, and the Michael was abandoned, but on 28 July, the Gabriel sighted the coast of Labrador.

A few days later, the mouth of Frobisher Bay was reached, and because ice and wind prevented further travel north, Frobisher determined to sail westward up this passage (which he conceived to be a strait) to see "whether he might carry himself through the same into some open sea on the back side." Baffin Island was reached on the 18 August 1576, where the expedition met some of the local natives. Having made arrangements with one of the natives to guide them through the region, Frobisher sent five of his men in a ship's boat to return the native to shore, but instructing them to avoid getting too close to any of the other natives. The boat's crew disobeyed, however, and were apparently taken captive by the Inuit. After days of searching Frobisher could not recover them, and eventually took hostage the man who had agreed to guide them to see if an exchange for the missing boat's crew could be arranged. The effort was fruitless, and the men were never seen again, but Inuit legend tells that the men lived among them for a few years until they died attempting to leave Baffin Island in a self-made boat.

Frobisher turned homewards, and reached London on 9 October. Among the things which had been hastily brought away by the men was a "piece of a black stone,". There assayers were unimpressed with the ore. Only one out of four experts consulted believed the ore to be gold-bearing, and he admitted he "knew how to flatter nature". Nevertheless, Frobisher's backers, led by Micheal Lok and the Muscovy Company used this assessment to lobby for investment for another voyage. [2] Martin Frobisher found fools gold in Baffin Island. The next year, a much bigger expedition than the former was fitted out. The Queen sold the Royal Navy ship Ayde to the Company of Cathay and provided £1000 towards the expenses of the expedition. The Company of Cathay was granted a charter from the crown, giving the company the sole right of sailing in every direction but the east. Frobisher was appointed high admiral of all lands and waters that might be discovered by him.

On 27 May 1577, the expedition, consisting, besides the Ayde, of the ships Gabriel and Michael, with an aggregate complement of 150 men, including miners, refiners, gentlemen, and soldiers, left Blackwall, and sailing by the north of Scotland reached Hall's Island at the mouth of Frobisher Bay on 17 July. A few days later, the country and the south side of the bay was solemnly taken possession of in the queen's name. Several weeks were now spent in collecting ore, but very little was done in the way of discovery, Frobisher being specially directed by his commission to "defer the further discovery of the passage until another time." There was much parleying and some skirmishing with the natives, and earnest but futile attempts were made to recover the men captured the previous year. The return was begun on 23 August, and the Ayde reached Milford Haven on 23 September. The Gabriel and Michael later arrived separately at Bristol and Yarmouth. Frobisher was received and thanked by the queen at Windsor.

Great preparations were made and considerable expense incurred for the assaying of the great quantity of "ore" (about 200 tons) brought home. This took up much time, and led to considerable dispute among the various parties interested. Meanwhile, the faith of the queen and others remained strong in the productiveness of the newly discovered territory, which she herself named Meta Incognita, and it was resolved to send out a larger expedition than ever, with all necessaries for the establishment of a colony of 100 men. Frobisher was again received by the queen, and Her Majesty threw a fine chain of gold around his neck. On 3 June 1578, the expedition, consisting in all of fifteen vessels, left Plymouth, and sailing by the English Channel on 20 June reached the south of Greenland, where Frobisher and some of his men managed to land. On 2 July, the foreland of Frobisher Bay was sighted. Stormy weather and dangerous ice prevented the rendezvous from being gained, and, besides causing the wreck of the barque Dennis of 100 tons, drove the fleet unwittingly up a new strait (Hudson).

After proceeding about sixty miles up this "mistaken strait," Frobisher with apparent reluctance turned back, and after many buffetings and separations, the fleet at last came to anchor in Frobisher Bay. Some attempt was made at founding a settlement, and a large quantity of ore was shipped. Too much dissension and discontent prevented a successful settlement. On the last day of August, the fleet set out on its return to England, which was reached in the beginning of October. The ore was taken to a specially constructed smelting plant at Powder Mill Lane in Dartford, Kent. Despite many attempts, the ore was apparently not worth smelting and was eventually used in Elizabethan road construction. [2] This ended Frobisher's attempts at the Northwest Passage. In 1580, Frobisher was employed as captain of one of the queen's ships in preventing the plans of Spain to assist the Irish in their resistance of encroaching English rule, and in the same year obtained a grant of the reversionary title of clerk of the Royal Navy. In 1585, he commanded the Primrose, as vice-admiral to Sir Francis Drake in his expedition to the West Indies.

Soon afterwards, the country was threatened with invasion by the Spanish Armada, and Frobisher's name was one of four mentioned by the Lord High Admiral in a letter to the queen of "men of the greatest experience that this realm hath." For his signal services in the Triumph, in the dispersion of the Armada, Martin Frobisher was knighted. He continued to cruise about in the Channel until 1590, when he was sent in command of a small fleet of ships to the coast of Spain and France. In 1591, he visited his native Altofts, and there married his second wife, a daughter of Lord Wentworth, becoming at the same time a landed proprietor in Yorkshire and Notts. He found, however, little leisure for a country life, and the following year took charge of the fleet fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh to the Spanish coast, returning with a rich prize. In November 1594, he was engaged with a squadron in the siege and relief of Brest, when he received a gunshot wound at Fort Crozon,[3] a Spanish-held fortress and due to poor medical treatment, died days later at Plymouth on 15 November.

His soft organs were buried at St Andrew's Church, Plymouth on 22 November. His body was then taken to London and buried at St Giles-without-Cripplegate Done Northwest Passage: Early approaches, a historical account View associated images The search for a Northwest Passage may be said to have begun in the late 15th century with the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot, who made the first recorded landfalls on the North American continent since the Norse voyages of the 11th century. The Cabots established that a passage through or round America would be necessary if the dream of a short route to the wealth of the Orient were to be realised. It was believed that there was a commercial route to the East by means of a strait (named Anian in the sixteenth century) through North American waters. Early Spanish and French efforts to find it failed, although the latter travelled deep into the continent along the St Lawrence River. In the sixteenth century British seamen sailed further north in search of the Passage and many features of the Arctic region were named after the explorers: among them Martin Frobisher, John Davis, William Baffin, Henry Hudson, Luke Foxe and Thomas James.

The Elizabethan adventurer Martin Frobisher made three voyages to the Arctic in 1576, 1577, and 1578. On the first he reached Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, and brought back ore thought to contain gold, a discovery that led to the two successive expeditions. The 1578 expedition consisted of a fleet of 15 ships and was sent to mine gold in Frobisher Bay. The ore was found to be worthless after this voyage. John Davis on his three expeditions in 1585, 1586, and 1587 coasted Greenland, Baffin Island, and Labrador, explored Davis Strait and discovered the entrance to Hudson Strait. Davis was prevented from a fourth voyage by the war with Spain, and his later voyages were in the warmer waters of the Far East. Henry Hudson, whose life apart from his last four years is a mystery, made voyages to Spitzbergen, to the northeast and to the river in America that bears his name, before embarking on a search in 1610 for the Northwest Passage. On this expedition he reached Hudson Bay and wintered in James Bay.

The following June provisions ran short and his crew mutinied, leaving Hudson and eight others adrift in a boat. No trace was ever found of Hudson and his companions. Robert Bylot was one of the mutineers who abandoned Hudson but was not one of those to be tried on return to England. In fact he accompanied Thomas Button on a Northwest Passage expedition in 1612-13, but apparently did not search for Hudson who may have still been alive in James Bay. Bylot then went on further voyages in search of a passage in 1615 and 1616 with William Baffin. In 1615 they correctly concluded that there was no possibility of a passage through Hudson Bay, and in 1616 they charted the coasts of Baffin Bay. These discoveries were later thought to be fantastic until John Ross rediscovered Baffin Bay in 1818. Luke Foxe and Thomas James went on two separate voyages in 1631. Foxe explored the western shore of Hudson Bay and the western coast of the Baffin Island shore of Foxe Basin until scurvy broke out and he returned to England.

James's rival expedition explored the southern shores of Hudson Bay and spent an unhappy winter on Charlton Island in James Bay. After the harrowing experiences of James and Foxe in Hudson Bay no more attempts to seek a passage were made for nearly 100 years.

Question: For what were Baffin, Frobisher and Franklin all searching?
Answer: The Northwest Passage